Tell me about crown races.

I need one for my on one smoothie Mixer headset.  Are they generic these days or do I need a specific one?

did your headset not come with one?

Putting suspension on my fatty but want to leave it easy to swap back to rigid, so need another crown race.

I’d just cut a slot in the one you have for easy swapping.

Long answer: the crown race needs to have the same angle as the inner surface of the bearing it contacts and there are different ‘standards’ so it’s not ‘any one will do’

Surely the bit of bearing that touches the race is flat?

but at an angle to the horizontal that can vary.

as an example:

Slotting my existing race is a good idea .

I am a serial race slotter. Just file and a bit of sanding on the cut edges so there are no nasty burrs.

I hadn’t thought of doing that before, but now you mention it, why aren’t all bloody crown races slotted?

Any reason at all that slotting one could cause an issue? (if properly smoothed on it slotted edges)

I suppose there may be a theoretical risk that the race could splay open slightly when repositioned, leaving it not perfectly round?

slightly increases the risk of the race turnign on the fork crown if the bearing seizes but for a cartridge bearign aheadset there’s no reason not to cut the crown race, really.

Best way of removing a race from a carbon fork?

stanley knife blade, tap twixt crown race and fork crown gradually, moving around the circumference as you go doing a bit at a time, once you can get the blade in twist it gently, again workign your way round. shoudl just gradually pop off the taper on the fork steerer.

For all the cost of a new crown race, I find it easier just to have a spare crown race on a different fork.

For all the cost of a new crown race

and we’re back to the OP :)

It’s not a crown race.